Debutante

by Madeline Moore

  ‘You didn’t tell me you were coming,’ Bobby accused. ‘I would have ordered some food. Students are always hungry, yes?’ She squinted her warm caramel eyes at Luke.

  He nodded helplessly.

  ‘Sorry. It was kind of an impulse thing,’ said Emily.

  ‘Good impulse. Have it more often, please.’ She turned her full attention to Luke, crossing her arms under her voluptuous breasts. ‘And who’s the handsome boy?’

  ‘A friend. You always say you want to meet my friends.’

  Bobby lifted a thin eyebrow. ‘Friend or friend?’

  ‘Don’t embarrass him,’ Emily scolded.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’m no prude. I know how it is these days with college kids. Friends with benefits, huh?’

  ‘Real life isn’t like TV,’ Emily defended. ‘We’re much more than friends.’

  ‘But you are not engaged?’ She grabbed Emily’s left hand and, seeing no ring, let it go. ‘Never mind. Your father and I, we were not engaged.’ She focused on Luke again. ‘For us it was love at first sight. He was in my country, looking for tin. You know – minering.’

  ‘Mining,’ corrected Emily.

  ‘And me – I was young. I was looking only for fun. But we met and – poof! A month later we were married.’ She touched her fingertips to the inside rims of her eyes. Her left ring finger sported a brilliant diamond set in yellow gold. ‘Daniel gave me this,’ she said, flashing her ring at Luke.

  ‘Awesome,’ he managed to squeak.

  Emily tried not to cringe. She refused to be embarrassed by the man she loved.

  ‘He say if I come to America we can live anywhere I want. “Oh I want to live in Hollywood,” I say. It is the only place I know about, in America. From the movies. Can you imagine?’

  Luke nodded. ‘I love LA,’ he said.

  Emily interrupted. ‘Bobby –’ she began.

  ‘I know, we must not dwell.’ She blinked rapidly, her lashes, thick and long as little brushes, drying her eyes. ‘We were very happy family, no?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Emily. ‘We … we still are.’

  Bobby flashed a brilliant grin. ‘True. Now, your young man will please remove his rucksack and I will tell him, “My name is not really Bobby but you may call me Bobby anyway,” and I will call you –?’

  ‘Luke.’ He dumped his knapsack and extended his hand.

  Bobby took it and pulled him into an embrace. ‘Luke! I like this name. May the farce be with you, no?’

  ‘I guess …’ He nodded against her neck, his furiously blushing face mostly hidden by her thick black curtain of hair. He shot Emily a helpless glance.

  Emily had to laugh. ‘Come on, let’s go sit by the pool,’ she said, tugging Luke free.

  Bobby dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. ‘I have closed the pool. If I go out for a dip or a little topless tanning the neighbours flee into their houses. Americans – so uptight. We go sit in the kitchen, OK?’ She turned and walked away, hips swinging. ‘You want coffee, you have to make it. I don’t know how to drive the machine.’

  ‘Mary’s day off?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Mary? She’s not with me any more. I manage for myself, for now.’

  ‘What happened to your little job at the spa?’ asked Emily. Mary had been a fixture in the house since before she could remember. The only reason Bobby would possibly have let her go would be lack of money. ‘Are we OK?’

  ‘So many questions.’ Bobby frowned. ‘I admit it will be good when you finish business school so you can help me understand what is what is what with these mining stocks and companies and corporations and etcetera.’

  ‘Really? Because I was thinking I could help you now if –’

  ‘Shush. You are a student now. We wait. But that spa! Oh my God! I am making mani/pedis and seaweed wrap and hot stone massage but no, now the ladies want to have the –’ she lowered her voice as if this would prevent Luke from hearing ‘– the back entrance bleached! This is disgusting, no? And they want … how is it said … bejewelled vaginas. Phooey! I have to do this or I have to go so –’ she shrugged ‘– I go. Make frothy coffee, please.’

  Emily was no barista but she could work an espresso machine. Luke didn’t embarrass her by asking for milk, thank goodness. He really wasn’t so gauche. It was just Emily being ashamed of her privileged background. Reverse snobbery was an insidious thing.

  They sat around the island counter and sipped, nibbling the slightly stale cookies that Bobby served from a tin.

  ‘So,’ Bobby asked, ‘what have you come to tell me, Emily? This boy get you pregnant?’

  ‘No!’ Emily blurted a fraction faster than Luke.

  ‘Good. So we got that out of the way. What’s next?’ She counted on a finger. ‘You gay and coming out to me?’ After a pause, she looked at Luke and said, ‘I don’t think so. Not with a friend like this one. What next? Or maybe you just tell me and don’t make me keep guessing? How would that be for an idea, huh?’

  ‘It’s money,’ Emily confessed. ‘I need more.’

  ‘Hmm. I must try to live on the monies from your daddy and you must do the same. Life is so expensive now! But you got everything paid for, out of your trust, and you got pocket money. You’ve always been good with money, so, how come you need more? Want me to start guessing again?’

  ‘No, no, that won’t be necessary,’ Emily interrupted. ‘I just – I’m twenty-one and I think it’s time for you to give me my trust fund. I can help you with the companies, Bobby. And I want to manage my own life.’

  ‘But that is not what your father stop– step– stipulates in his will. I know you know what he wants. After you graduate from any programme but movie programme, then you will get your money.’ Bobby squinted over her coffee cup. ‘If you need more money you can work, no?’

  ‘She works three nights a week already,’ said Luke. ‘With her course load –’

  Emily shot him a look so hard he recoiled as if she’d slapped his face.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Fuck.’ He grimaced. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Oh, this word I hear everywhere all the time! Not in my house, do you hear me?’

  Luke nodded. He hunched over his coffee cup.

  Bobby turned eyes that were suddenly icy on her stepdaughter. ‘Why you are working? Why do you want your money now?’

  ‘Tuition is going up, way up,’ said Emily.

  ‘No it isn’t. I got the statement last week. You’re paid up for next year already. Now, tell me the truth, and don’t break my heart with lies.’

  Bobby had always had the knack of punishing Emily with guilt. Emily had never been grounded or had her allowance cut off, growing up. She’d just had to live with breaking her stepmother’s heart on a fairly regular basis.

  And this time she was really guilty! What could she do except …

  Emily burst into gut-wrenching sobs.

  Luke grabbed her hand and squeezed it but kept his mouth closed. Bobby waited. That wasn’t what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to embrace Emily and forgive her for everything, even if she didn’t know what ‘everything’ was.

  Eventually, Emily gulped the last of her sobs back and straightened her back.

  ‘Now tell me,’ Bobby ordered.

  ‘I’ve been bad,’ Emily said.

  ‘How bad?’

  ‘I’ve lied to you.’

  ‘That much I know already. Now the truth, if you remember what that is.’

  ‘I’m doing a double major. You get the statement for one and I get the statement for the other. I pay for it myself. It’s another business course.’

  ‘Which you need to keep a secret from me, why?’

  Emily mumbled, ‘The business of film.’

  ‘I can’t hear you.’

  ‘The business of film.’

  ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘How to be a movie producer.’

  ‘Cool,’ said Luke. ‘I thought you wanted to write.’

  ‘And executive produce, Luke.’


  ‘Hey, we could really –’

  Bobby picked up her coffee cup, inspected it carefully, and hurled it across the room where it smashed into the sink. ‘That is what you’ve done to my heart. You know how your poor father felt about that Hollywood nonsense!’ She looked at the ceiling, fist raised, clenched and shaking, ‘You hear your daughter, Daniel? Forgive her, if you can. Blame me. I should have made you move us away from this goddam town. Turn your hate on me, my beloved, just so that you forgive your only daughter, no matter what she has become.’

  She turned to Emily. ‘Your tuition is paid. Your allowance is fixed. Not another penny, though, not until you come into your trust. When you have graduated. From your business course.’ She grabbed Luke’s arm and gave it a shake. ‘I suppose you are going to be our new Johnny Depp, hm? Or Brad Pitt, maybe?’

  ‘No. I plan to direct,’ said Luke.

  ‘Let go of him,’ said Emily.

  Bobby released Luke’s arm and focused on her stepdaughter once more. ‘Not a dropped crumb from under my table. Not a drop of water from my well.’

  ‘Your well, from my father. Maybe it’s run dry, Bobby? No Mary? Garden overgrown? No pool man? I’ve never known you not to have a pool man. Tell me the truth. Are you cashing in my companies and spending my money?’

  ‘How dare you!’ Bobby grasped the gauzy fabric of her peasant blouse, either feigning a heart attack or about to rend her clothing in despair, Emily wasn’t sure. Nor did she care.

  ‘Let’s get out of here, Luke.’

  Bobby shrieked at them from the kitchen as they hoisted their knapsacks on. ‘Nothing from me, no, not even my love, until you come to your senses and crawl back to me, begging forgiveness. Then, we shall see. Now go!’

  They trudged to the bus stop in silence. Emily would’ve cried had she not already burst into tears a scant half-hour earlier.

  It wasn’t until they were on the bus back to campus that Luke spoke up. ‘What’s the big deal, Emily? What did your dad have against the movie business?’

  Emily sighed. ‘I never knew. At a guess, I’d say he lost money investing in a movie sometime, but that doesn’t seem enough to make him so prejudiced. He wasn’t a fanatic. We went to the movies and watched movies, but we never talked about them or the making of them. As far as he was concerned, everyone in the business side of film was really, really evil. If he’d known I wanted to become a producer someday, it’d be like I was embracing the devil – or worse.’

  Luke hugged her. ‘Well, we’ve all got our quirks.’

  ‘This one,’ Emily said, ‘might cost me my family or my career, or both.’

  Chapter Six

  Emily stood in the doorway of The Muggery, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the huge bar. She and Luke had had great times in the Film students’ favourite drinking establishment. Now it looked like the good times were over, forever. Luke and the others were at the back. She could see them glumly slurping from their mugs. The plan was to ‘brainstorm’ a solution to their financial woes. In Emily’s opinion, that was just talk. In the real world, dreams weren’t enough. Her own last hope had been that she’d be allowed to transfer the payment of her Business course to her Movie one. Sure she could. All she needed was her trustee’s signature. Fat chance!

  The Movie Mob occupied the bar’s back room, by leave of a proprietor who fancied himself as a future producer. He always had funds ‘almost secured’ but they never arrived. Every Film student who met him got excited about Eric’s promises of employment, ‘once things gelled’, at first. Eventually reality sank in. Eric was a wannabe who never would be, but he meant well. Best of all, if you went along with his dreams, you got to run a tab and yesterday’s stale pretzels were free.

  The jugs of lager on the big back room table were all half empty. A dozen young faces lifted to greet Emily expectantly. She shrugged and shook her head.

  Luke said, ‘Fuck!’

  Emily slumped into a chair.

  As if on the other end of a seesaw, Marion jumped up. It was amazing how resilient that girl was. Someday, Emily was sure, Marion would amount to something. She was too fizzy to keep bottled up.

  Short skirt swinging, long legs flashing, Marion stepped from her chair onto the table. That got everyone’s, particularly the boys’, attention.

  ‘Are we defeated?’ Marion wanted to know.

  Someone at the back grunted, ‘Yes,’ but Marion ignored him.

  ‘We’ve got a roomful of talent here,’ she went on. ‘All we need is some money.’

  That brought another groan from the back.

  ‘Shut up!’ Marion ordered. ‘You want to enjoy the leg show?’ She pulled her hem higher up one thigh. ‘Then you’ve gotta show some enthusiasm, OK?’

  ‘We’re all enthused about your legs, Marion,’ Luke assured her.

  Emily poked his ribs with her elbow but only in fun. She had no problem with his admiring other women, from a distance. Not even this one.

  Marion gave Luke a warm smile. ‘OK, we don’t have much cash, but we must have assets of some sort, no? I suggest that we pool everything we’ve got.’

  ‘All for one and one for all,’ Jillian contributed. Diminutive and curvaceous, the bouncy brunette always played cheerleader to Marion. Emily suspected there was a little girl-crush going on there. It fascinated her.

  ‘Exactly,’ Marion said. ‘And united we stand, and so on. So, who’s for pooling our resources?’

  One by one, hands rose, except for Guy’s. They all knew that he was on the point of failing his course, so that was understandable. He crept from the room, followed by good wishes.

  Marion slipped the silver bracelet she always wore off her wrist and held it high. ‘I pledge this genuine Navajo bracelet to the Gods of Film. Help us in our hour of need!’

  With that, she returned to her seat, leaving the bracelet in the middle of the table.

  Jillian took out a pad and pen.

  Emily watched as Jillian carefully printed: One Navajo bracelet. She knew the bracelet would not make as much as a dint in the cost of the tuition hike for a dozen students. However, Marion’s dramatic presentation had raised everyone’s spirits and that certainly counted for something.

  Marion announced, ‘I’ve got almost a thousand bucks in my savings. I’ll pledge that, too.’ She was cheered and her pledge neatly noted by Jillian. ‘Who’s next?’

  By the time they were done there was a pitiful pile of valuables on the table and a pledge of almost two thousand dollars. Jillian reported that among them, so far, they could cover the increase in one student’s tuition, with enough left over for a hamburger with fries.

  Faces fell. A couple got up and headed for the door.

  Marion said, ‘Wait a minute! That’s just our material assets. We have more.’

  Someone asked, ‘Like what?’

  Marion looked at Emily. ‘OK to tell them?’ she asked.

  ‘Tell them what?’

  ‘About your very valuable assets, that cost you nothing and are renewable.’

  It took Emily a few moments to work out what Marion was referring to. ‘Do you mean –?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  Emily looked at Luke, who was red in the face but nodded. ‘Go ahead,’ she told Marion.

  ‘OK, everyone. Just for their own amusement, Emily and Luke have been making private movies. Very private, if you know what I mean.’

  All faces turned to Emily and Luke.

  ‘If we knew where to sell that sort of thing, I bet they’d fetch a fortune.’ She looked at Emily. ‘Not yours, of course. I’m talking about new, specially shot, movies.’

  ‘Thank you for that,’ Emily said.

  ‘We have Luke to direct,’ Marion said. ‘Emily could produce. I’ll write.’

  ‘I hope to do some of the writing as well,’ said Em, swiftly taking control of the situation back from Marion. ‘But mainly, I’ll be executive producer. Anyone got a problem with that?’

 
No one did.

  Pointing to the students in turn, she said, ‘Lighting. Sound. Camera. You two big guys, grips? Everything else, we can double up on, except … talent!’ She looked around the room. The men she’d appointed as grips raised their hands.

  ‘Good. Are you equipped for the job? Well equipped?’

  One dropped his. The other, bald-headed, well over six feet tall, dark-skinned with chiselled features, looked like he wanted to say something. He seemed vaguely familiar.

  Emily raised a brow at him. ‘What?’

  ‘Just in case, I’m training as a camera operator.’ His voice was deep and resonant, enough to vibrate Emily’s spine.

  ‘That makes you our second camera, then,’ she said, ‘if we ever get the chance to use two. You don’t mind being a grip?’

  ‘No problem. I’m behind you one hundred per cent, Emily. I’ll help out any way I can, even in front of the camera.’

  ‘Thanks …?’

  ‘Paul. I live with Luke and Marion and Richard and Tony and Jimmy and –’

  Emily bit her lip. ‘Sorry, Paul. I won’t forget your name again.’

  Paul shook his head in mock despair. ‘I’m the only black dude in the house, Emily.’

  ‘Excuse me for being colour blind,’ Emily retorted. She flashed him her best apologetic grin.

  Everyone, including Paul, cracked up.

  Emily pressed on. ‘Talking about performing, I hope everyone took advantage of that free fancy STI test the school offered last month?’

  Most heads nodded.

  Gary said, ‘Kara and I are monogamous. We didn’t do it.’